The Feeling Only Music Can Give
by Blue Food Tastes Better
Summary: Percy plays guitar in a band called Riptide. When he breaks up with his girlfriend Rachel, their keyboardist, she leaves the band. I mean, can you blame her? Staying in a band with your ex? Awkward. So now, Riptide needs a keyboardist. And that's how Annabeth Chase ties in... Rated T for strong language Discaimer: i own no pjo


"Percy, I'm sorry. I really am."  
"I just don't understand. We were _good_, Rachel, we really were."  
"I know. It's just… I hate to be so stereotypical when I say it, but it really _was_ not you, it was me."  
"Rachel, what are you talk-"  
"My _God_, are you blind, Jackson?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"Seriously, you're an idiot. And I mean that in the most loving way, of course."  
"What are you talking about?"  
Rachel sighed. She looked up at her boyfriend- oh, ex-boyfriend now, it would be. That's what breakups do; turn present tense to past tense, turn boyfriends into "just friends", add an "ex" in front of precious terms. Her _ex-boyfriend's_ green eyes were shining with suppressed tears that he would let fall later, in a more private, appropriate setting, and his head was slightly cocked to the side. His black hair, always messy in that adorable way that made Rachel want to run her fingers through it, was falling in his face, but he didn't brush it away. Rachel itched to reach out, touch him, to brush it herself, but this was no longer an appropriate option. She stared at her clueless boyfriend (ex-boyfriend) and shook her head sadly. "Percy. You are so obviously head over heels for someone else."  
"No, I'm not, Rachel, what are you talking abou-"  
"Bye, Perce. Still friends?"  
And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out of Percy's garage, where Leo, Nico, Frank, and Jason, the other members of Percy's band, Riptide!, gaped after her curly red mane, wondering what the hell just happened.

"We need a keyboardist."  
"No shit, Nico."  
"Well, excuse me, you-"  
"Okay, Lovebirds, break it up!" said Jason, effectively cutting off Leo and Nico's current argument, which would have inevitably turned into a battle to see who knew the most creative profanities. Leo started stuttering.  
"I-we're not- it's-"  
"Would you stop calling us lovebirds, Grace? Seriously, it's getting old." said Nico, a slight pink tint creeping up his neck.  
Jason held up his hands in mock surrender. "Maybe I'd give it a rest if you weren't mentally taking each other's clothes off every time you s-"  
"Could we not have this discussion?" asked Leo, his cheeks bright red as he threw a cookie at Jason's face.  
"Yeah," said Frank, coming into the conversation suddenly. "We have a much more important problem to discuss. Namely, the fact that our lead guitarist is moping in the corner, and we need a new member of the band now that Rachel's gone."  
Nico latched thankfully on to the change of subject. "Yes! I've never seen Percy so sad," he added quietly.  
Jason, Leo, and Frank looked _oh-so_ discreetly over their shoulders, where Percy Jackson, lead guitarist and background singer of Riptide!, was sitting, stuffing blue chocolate chip cookies into his face at an alarming rate. "I see you guys staring," he said in a damaged voice, not even looking in their direction.  
"Percy…" began Frank sweetly. Frank Zhang was a big, Asian boy. All muscles and crew cut on the outside, but with a pair of the sweetest doe brown eyes and biggest heart of anyone you'd ever know. He was Riptide's bassist and temporary manager since they didn't really have one officially. The other boys had voted Frank their manager, mainly because he was the least likely to lose or forget something out of the entire group. (Seeing as whom the other band members were, this wasn't exactly saying much.)  
Jason Grace was the lead singer of the group. He had blonde hair with the tips of his fringe dyed sky blue. He had his septum and lip pierced, making him the least pierced of the group (save Frank, who had none), but he was the most tattooed, with a full sleeve on both arms, full of lightning bolts and birds and such (he had a minor obsession with the sky and all things related). He was a good guy deep down, but a massive flirt and a big cusser. His profanities were nowhere near as creative as Nico's or Leo's, but his were used on a day-to-day basis.  
Nico di Angelo was the electric guitarist, and a background singer, which was exactly the same as Percy. He had his septum, snakebites, smiley, tongue, and tongue webbing pierced, and only two tattoos, one inside his lip that said "GHOST KING" and one on his wrist of a scythe.  
Leo Valdez was the drummer. He was severely ADHD, and loved drums because he made money just for banging things with sticks. For piercings, he had spider bites, his septum, his eyebrow, and his tongue webbing pierced. In terms of tattoos, he had a flame design going up his entire left arm and left side of his chest that took him 3 years to save enough for and progressively add to, and he couldn't be more proud of it. On his right shoulder, he had a tattoo that said "Hot Stuff" in a girly font (he lost a dare, don't ask), but he tried to hide it with shirts sleeves, because he was humiliated. He also had one on the inside of his lip that said "REPAIR BOY". He and Nico had gotten the lip tattoos together as a sort of ''best friends" thing.  
Last of all was Percy Jackson. He was the lead guitarist, background singer, and main song writer for Riptide! and was currently throwing himself a pity party. In terms of tattoos, he had an ocean-related sleeve on his left arm and a trident on his right forearm. His lip and eyebrow were pierced as well. He had messy black hair with the right half shaved off, and liked to rip off the sleeves of all his shirts. He was throwing the pity party because his girlfriend of two years, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, had dumped him a week ago for no visible reason. Not only was that bad for Percy, but it was bad for the band as well, because the snarky redhead had been Riptide!'s keyboardist and now they had no piano.  
The six of them had been a "band" ever since they were 14, but it wasn't until they were sixteen that they actually started playing music together (when they were fourteen, they told people they were in a band so they'd look cooler. Understandably, it didn't work too well.) Now, they were nineteen, with a sizable fan base and gigs booked every few weekends. They were in that rocky, in-between part of life, where you're graduated from high school but not quite ready for college, and their band had become a sort of saving grace. No matter what shit came around in life, they were always there for each other. And by shit, I mean the death of Frank's mom. I mean Jason's abusive, drug addicted mom who was out with a different man every night. I mean Nico's sister dying in a car wreck, and his dad kicking him out of the house for coming out as gay at the age of sixteen. I mean Leo, bouncing around from foster care to foster care, running away, dropping out of school, and both his parents dying in a fire. I mean Percy's stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, with a gambling addiction and tendency to get drunk and hit Percy's mom. I mean _that_ kind of shit. The shit that either breaks people up or brings them closer together. and in the case of Riptide!, it brought them together. They became brothers, always there for each other, always a shoulder to lean on for support. Yeah, sometimes they pissed each other off or had bad days, but brothers will fight and argue. It's inevitable.

"Percy, get a grip, man." said Nico. "I mean, I know it's sad and shit, but we can't just mope about it. We need to take action and do something. In this case, it's find a new keyboardist."

Percy exhaled and banged his head against the table. "I guess so." was his muffled reply.

"We need 5 more songs to put on the album, and we need to come up with an album name, because we haven't released an album in 3 months. Fans are getting restless." said Frank, scrolling through the Facebook app on his iPhone 5S.

Leo groaned. "I'm all song lyric-ed out." he whined. "Jason, why don't you write a song for once."

"How about something with the word 'fuck' in the title? That'll grab people's attention." said Jason, shoving an entire cookie in his mouth.

"Every song you've ever written has 'fuck' in the title!" said Nico. "'Fuck Me', 'Fuck the World', 'This Fucking Girl', 'Fuck Cats', 'I Don't Give Two Fucks', 'I'd Fuck Her Again', and who could forget, the inspirational 'Fuck'?"

"Okay, well do you have anything better, Death Breath?" Jason fired back.

"What about a sad song? Most of the songs on this album are loud and angry, so maybe we should try something slow and sentimental." came Percy's voice from the corner.

"You see why we need this boy? He's a genius." said Leo, grinning at Percy.

Frank pulled out his notebook. "Okay, brainstorm. Sad lyrics… go!" he said.

There was a silence where the 5 boys sat in silence.

"I'm so fucking done." said Jason after a minute.

"I tried everything, but everything wasn't enough." said Nico.

"My perfect wasn't good enough for you." said Leo.

"You kept feeding me your bullshit, hoping I would break." said Jason.

"Is there anyone who cares?" said Leo.

"Scars on my wrists, scars on my thighs. The more I throw up, the more the mirror lies." said Percy.

"Damn, boy!" said Jason.

"You see why we need this boy?" said Leo, "Genius."


End file.
